GRE Argument Essay Analysis

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Hi Everyone,

This is my first post on urch and I recently took my second GRE practice test. Please find below my issue essay question stem along with the response. Please rate my response and kindly highlight my improvement areas. Thanks in advance.

 

The city of Winston has two large department stores: Namen and Roscoe. Namen is known for its high-end designer fashions, while Roscoe is known for more affordable fashion options. Both Namen and Roscoe are each considering opening another store in the growing suburb of Salem, where the population has grown over 50% in the last three years and where the median income is $75,000. Namen’s executives argue that as population and median income increase, people are willing to spend more money on clothing. However, Roscoe’s executives believe that the suburbs are more family oriented, and therefore their store will be more profitable than their competitor Namen.

 

Write a response in which you discuss what questions would need to be answered in order to decide whether the recommendation is likely to have the predicted result. Be sure to explain how the answers to these questions would help to evaluate the recommendation.

 

In this argument, it is stated that two stores in the city of Winston plan to expand their business and have their reasons to be successful in doing so. The conclusion of company Namen is based on the fact that increasing population and increasing median income hints at the possibility of people buying their high end apparel. On the contrary, the company Roscoe's conclusion rests on the premise that since most of the families living in the suburbs are more family oriented, they will be inclined to stay thrifty. The arguments rests on multiple assumptions that need to be answered in order to conclusively decide which company would benefit in the long run, and that can be done by answering the three questions asked below.

 

Firstly, it is important to evaluate the argument based on statistical data since data provided at a higher level could reveal treacherous possibilities, if left unscathed. For example, the median percentage increase of $75000 in income could reveal a data plot that could be highly skewed in nature and thus be misleading. It is possible that few people had a huge rise in their incomes which lead to the above figure. In this case, the result would not be in favor of Namen. But if the income spread has gone up in a more well distributed manner, then it is possible that even conservative and family oriented people of Winston may start spending more. This would certainly benefit Roscoe. Thus it is very important to dive deeper into the details and the saying "the devil lies in the detail" fits seemingly well in this case to highlight an important assumption in the argument.

 

Furthermore, the increase in population in the suburbs could also become a hub of many buyers but their purchasing power is not known. To answer this, it is important to consider other factors that have been scoped out of this argument and could play a vital role in the evaluation of the results. The growing population could have more liabilites such as increased taxes, child and healthcare etc. that would lead to decrease in purchasing power of the people even if their incomes go up the order. This would hamper Namen's idea of expanding in the suburbs of Winston. A decrease or constant rate of the above mentioned extraneous factors could also mean that families are able to afford the high end clothing offered by Namen and would support Roscoe's plan. Thus answering the above is also an important to evaluate the argument.

 

Finally, changing times could also cause a change in the outlook of people and people being in a family oriented state of mind could change their mind with changing times. To elaborate, if the upcoming generations want to buy high end clothes, then irrespective of their financial position, they will try to buy clothes at Namen. But if the trend continues, then Roscoe has a great chance of succeeding among the expanding suburban areas of Winston.

 

In conclusion , the argument, as it stands, rests on multiple assumptions that are unanswered and play a vital role in driving decisions for the companies mentioned in the argument. If the companies decide to expand their scope of vision and eliminate the uncertainities with more expedient research and analysis, decision making would certainly be eased out for them. The above mentioned three questions are probing enough to evaluate the crux of the argument and unless substantial evidence is put forth to answer the questions asked, it is difficult to evaluate the argument and the proposed recommendations.

[aaditya0893]

Any advice is highly appreciated. Thanks.